Two Canadian medical experts are calling for new guidelines that would bar doctors from telling parents the sex of their fetus until late in a pregnancy, calling it a subtle way to curb the practice of sex selection.

Writing in a major obstetrics journal recently, the bio-ethicist and doctor say physicians should delay imparting information on baby sex until it is too late for the woman to have an abortion with no questions asked.

They admit it is unfortunate doctors should have to play such a role, but say it is unavoidable because Canadian law does not address the sex-selection phenomenon -- or any other aspect of abortion.

"I think Canadians have a sort of visceral reaction to the idea that people would terminate a pregnancy based on gender alone," said Brendan Leier, a bio-ethicist at Edmonton's Stollery Children's Hospital and co-author of the recommendations.

"But we have no legislation that reflects those values.... The entire burden of upholding those values falls on clinicians."